AL WILLIAMSON (1931 - 2010)
Not again…*Sigh*
Here’s what Marvel superstar artist Mike Deodato had to say about it today:
It seems as though Al Williamson has always been with us in the comics world. Certainly he was out there doing the most amazing work years before I was born, and even then his pages radiated skills and imagination with every pen and brushstroke. A beautiful synthesis of his inspirations (a lot of Alex Raymond, a bit of Hal Foster) and his contemporaries (Roy Krenkel, Frank Frazetta), Williamson became a touchstone of talent to so many of us in the waves of newcomers that followed. He may have loved Flash Gordon, but he also proved he could draw Star Wars better than any of us who had tried. Every time I see a comic book with an alien landscape or a spotted frog, I knew Al Williamson had been there, at least in spirit. One has only to look at my current work on SECRET AVENGERS to see certain stagings, referencing, and line work that hearken back to the panels and pages of this American original.
— Mike Deodato, Jr.
As for me?
I have Al Williamson to thank for my first writing jobs in the comic business, and he didn’t even remember it.
His was just a random act of kindness, I suppose. In late 1982, I’d moved from Wheeling, West VIrginia to take a job in North Attleboro, Massachusetts as writer for an in-house ad agency. Attending a Con in Boston that first weekend, two days before my first day at my new job, I met Al Williamson and chatted with him a couple of times throughout the day. That evening, I bought him a drink at the bar and told him about a short story I was writing to shop around, an homage to Ray Bradbury. “I like that,” he said. “Ever consider writing for comics?” I admitted that I’d tried back in high school to write and sell some comics stories but had no luck.
“I’m working with a new company called Pacific with an editor named David Scroggy,” he said, jotting down a phone number for me. “Wait till the middle of next week, call him, tell him the story you told me. I will tell him I’m interested in drawing it.” True to his word, he did. When I phoned David Scroggy, he was prepped for my call, had me mail in the 10-page script, and it became the first comic book story I ever sold. (Al’s then-assistant/protege` Tom Yeates ended up drawing it when Al got too busy on Bruce Jones’s stories.) It led to several more sales to Pacific, and my comics-writing career was finally in motion. I left Massachusetts in 1986, returned to Wheeling, and have worked in comics pretty much full-time ever since — as a writer, a packager, a publisher and, for the past 17 years, an agent who has had the joy of discovering art talent all over the world to bring into the biz. Ed Benes, Joe Bennett, Roger Cruz, Mike Deodato, Fabio Laguna, Al Rio, Luke Ross, Stephen Segovia, Harvey Tolibao, Wilson Tortosa, and a couple of hundred others got their start in the American comic book market in part because of the opportunity that Al gave to me.
Fast-forward a dozen or so years later: I ran into Al at another Con and thanked him again for the kindness he showed me that day, telling him all the wonderful things I got to do, thanks to that first opportunity he gave me — from writing Superman to being an editor and a publisher, to opening multiple comics art agency offices in Brazil and the Philippines. He shook my hand, appreciated the thanks, but didn’t recall the incident. I guess it was just one of many, in a life of kindnesses.
Today I heard the news of Al’s passing. How could this happen? Talents like Al Williamson are supposed to live forever. For me, he will.
Thank you again, Al. I’m passing it forward as fast as I can.
